Rebecca Meyers | Lifestyle Editor
Writing is one of those things that is inevitable in college for just about any major. Even those opting to study completely different subjects have to do it, and some students even have to face the daunting task of writing a thesis. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of tools and resources to help tackle writing assignments, both on-campus and off.
Writing Center
Western’s Writing Center is where students and their work can receive one-on-one attention from tutors that can help with any kind of writing purpose. A full list of their hours, services and contact information can be found at wou.edu/writingctr.
Writer’s Crucible
One of Western’s newest additions, the Writer’s Crucible is a group on campus for regular writers who want to improve their overall writing in an environment of other writers. For more information, contact Natalie Dean at ndean17@wou.edu.
Grammarly
This online tool is a free and simple way to do basic grammar checks while writing any important paper. It’s not necessarily a substitute for proofreading, but it does help eliminate a lot of basic mistakes.
Google Scholar
Tired of having to sort through results on Google to find credible sources? Google Scholar narrows your search to academic and peer reviewed sources only.
Mendeley
This free online tool helps store research and organize papers. It allows users to upload almost any document to use later for reference or storage and even has a bibliography tool.
Writer’s Diet
This quick and easy online tool will analyze a segment of writing and analyze the ways in which it may be too wordy. Students should note, however, that most academic papers tend to score poorly in the abstract nouns section due to the nature of research papers, but it’s a good way to check unnecessary words in the other categories, such as use of adverbs.
Easybib
This online tool is a go-to for many students in creating or learning how to create the different types of citations. Results usually have to be double-checked and occasionally edited, but it creates a good initial framework either way for creating citations.
Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu
Photo by Rebecca Meyers
